I walk from the car park and wait at the traffic lights. I close my eyes and I bask in that moment of pure sunlight, the warmth of it on my skin, the cool breeze over my face and the peace and tranquillity of that moment. No beeping of machines, no crying, no one in pain, no phone ringing, no pressure of bed block, no worry of disease, just one pure moment of peace. I wonder to myself if we had the ability to bottle that moment, that insight and that feeling and hand it out, would people use it?

My perfect ED would be built on a foundation of this feeling. One where you are given the time to breathe and compose yourself after running resus back to back for hours on end. Imagine an ED that ensured that you would always eat lunch on time, ran to a schedule, never had ward awaiting patients in it and encouraged you to take time for you. As nice as this sounds it is not possible, well not all of it. You can’t control the types of patients that come through the door, potentially experiencing the worst days of their life. You can’t run ED on a schedule, it is an unpredictable environment. You can’t take responsibility for the beds available in the hospital.

However, you can turn to your colleague and encourage them to take a moment in between the resus patients. You can turn to your team and say let’s take a moment to just be mindful and present. You can approach your boss and they can encourage you to take that holiday you have been putting off due to departmental need. You can support your workmates while you all strive to give the best patient care possible. You can say those words that are so hard to say, I need your help. These are the things that I believe make the perfect ED.